Dota 6.79C patch analysis.

So a small patch has been released a little before Christmas that focuses on the competitive scene and some of the things that have been going on there lately, none of these changes are really that huge but it does steer the game in another direction slightly.

Anyways on to the changes.

• Hand of Midas recipe cost increased from 1400 to 1550

Not a bad change at all, Midas is getting out of hand lately with every support and their grandmother buying it, I've seen some games where a support venomancer would get Midas 25 minutes into the game so I'm glad it's a little more expensive now. Midas should stay a carry only sort of item and supports should focus more on things like Meka and Force staff, not getting gold.

• Ancestral Spirit vision reduced from 600 to 450
• Ancestral Spirit damage reduced from 80/120/160/200 to 60/100/140/180

I don't play Elder Titan that much to know how much this will affect him, I've seen how damaging Ancestral Spirit can be when combined with his Aura yet losing 20 damage hardly seems like much, the reduction to vision makes it slightly harder to chase people and hit them with the spirit but overall this is minor.

• Plague Wards night vision reduced from 1200 to 800
• Venomancer base movement speed reduced from 290 to 285

Venomancer sure has been popular lately thanks to the many buffs he got this patch, yet it seems most people took them the wrong way and build Veno by maxing out his Plague Wards instead of Gale which does a ton more damage. Icefrog's nerf here is to encourage people to skip the wards and add more Gale to Venomancer.

• Necronomicon night vision from 1300/1400/1500 to 800
• Necronomicon gold bounty increased from 100 to 100/125/150 (per unit)

Wow, big nerf to their Night vision which means pushing during night time just got a bit harder, the increased gold bounty is another blow for Necronomicon as well. Since Midas and Helm of Dominator no longer work on Necro it's been overused with teams going 4-5 Necronomicons on them so this should help balance it out a bit more without making the item's combat effectiveness suffer.

• Magnetic Grip cast range reduced from 1400 to 1100
• Boulder Smash silence duration reduced from 5 to 3.5/4/4.5/5
• Boulder Smash unit knockback range rescaled from 800 to 500/600/700/800
• Fixed Stone Remnant counting as a spell (for purposes of Curse of the Silent, Magic Stick, etc)

A 5 second silence on level 1 is powerful no matter how hard it is to land but by reducing duration as well as knockback range the skill becomes much more balanced, Stone Remnant also got a bit weaker against silencer but isn't as crippled against anyone buying magic wand when laning against Earth Spirit.

• Dueling units cannot be disarmed or Force Staffed away

I like this, the main point of a Duel is that both players just tank each other up, this helps Legion Commander more in her role as one of Dota's few "real tanks" as very few other heroes can force the enemy to focus fire on them.

• Visage movement speed reduced from 295 to 290

Minor nerf, we'll keep seeing these for a while, I just hope his Ultimate doesn't get nerfed and he'll be fine.

• Crystal Maiden base Intelligence reduced from 21 to 19 (same base damage as before)

I never understand Crystal Maiden nerfs since I see her as being quite underpowered, anyways all this does is reduce her mana by 26 which isn't huge but sometimes you'll find yourself unable to use your entire combo due to this nerf so... Thanks IceFrog.